A Boy and His Psyduck
by DarkAngelTorchic
Summary: The economy of Goldenrod has gone down the hole, and no longer does the Goldenrod Department Store have rooftop sales. What's Todd to do? Chill out on route 34 and wait to battle overzealous young trainers, apparently.


**2:37.**

Short brown hair ruffled by the wind. Psyduck's clueless eyes gazing up. Silence. Silence. More silence.

"Psy?" The yellow duck tugged at his hand and looked from the boy to the city. He knew the routine. It was about this time every day that the duo would take a walk from their usual hangout on route 34 into the city... Well, one spot in particular in the city.

It wasn't that Todd needed supplies that often. Route 34 was fairly peaceful as routes leading up to cities went and he and Psyduck didn't battle often. No, it was so much more than that.

Todd was a sucker... for a good sale.

It wasn't very manly of him, but Todd loved to shop, especially when there were great deals to be found. Half off rooftop sales? They were his heaven. His sanctum.

Until they weren't anymore.

It had been precisely two months, one week and three days since the day that Todd and Psyduck had gleefully walked that well-worn path to the Goldenrod City Department Store. Even though the clerks knew him, knew what he was there for, nobody stopped him. The elevator was particularly slow that day, so he had grabbed Psyduck and ran... And he ran up six flights of stairs, nonetheless! But when he reached the rooftop, he found nothing but a vending machine.

A fucking vending machine, Goldenrod? Really, that's all you have to offer?

A middle-aged woman stood looking over the edge, down onto the city, smoking a cigarette. Todd had looked at her with wide eyes. "Where did the rooftop sale go? It was just here last week! Did it end already?"

The woman looked at him like he was crazy. "They're not doing those anymore, kid. That was the last one until the economy picks up."

"You gotta be shittin me!" Todd cried, forgetting that whole rule about manners and elders and what not. "What do you mean they're not doing rooftop sales anymore?"

"Just what I said. Economy sucks, kid. They can't afford to be doing these rooftop sales. Not enough people know about them. They're actually losing money," she said, her gravelly voice shooting bullets into the young man's heart.

"Can't they just advertise them?" he asked pleadingly.

"Don't ask me." And with that, the woman put out her cigarette and went back inside, leaving Todd with only his grief... And his Psyduck. Not that the yellow duck was much hope. He had bounded over to the vending machines with a hopeful glaze in his eyes.

"Duck?" he asked, shooting a beseeching glance at his trainer. The woeful boy slowly made his way to where the water Pokemon was anxiously waiting.

"300 for a soda pop? Hell no!" he yelled, giving the vending machine a swift kick. "This is shit!" Psyduck looked at the usually calm boy in horror. A younger woman with a small child steered the tot in the opposite direction from Todd's rage.

This was why that fateful day two months, one week and three days later, when Psyduck (who still hadn't hit the realization that they weren't going back again) tugged on his hand, Todd merely shook his head. The wounds were just too fresh. He couldn't find it in himself to go yet.

"Hi there!" a voice greeted him. Todd looked up. A brown-eyed girl, maybe a year or two younger than himself, stood in front of him with a large smile on her face, pigtails blowing in the cool spring breeze. "Would you like to battle?"

"Um, yeah, sure," Todd answered. He turned his gaze to Psyduck. "You want to battle, right, Psyduck?"

"Psyduck!" answered the cheerful yellow duck.

"Okay, awesome!" the girl said with a giggle. "Let's go, Entei!"

"Wait, what the hell?" Todd asked, looking on in horror as she released the giant volcano Pokemon. Psyduck was equally frightened. Type disadvantage or not, it was about to whoop some ass.

"Let's just say I have my ways," she said with a wink. "Okay, Entei, just do that thing where you spray out walls of supercharged flames and junk. That one really awesome thing, you know?"

Entei looked bemused, staring at the girl with absolute boredom in it's eyes.

"Okay, I know you only do this, like, every fifth time I tell you to. I guess that's what I get for not being patient enough to raise Cyndaquil and getting an Entei from my brother's friend's cousin's boyfriend, but one day you'll listen to me!" she yelled, getting angry.

As if he was doing her a favor, he blew out a weak flame towards the Psyduck. Seeing as how Entei's weakest flame was most Pokemon's strongest, it was enough to char the duck and knock it backwards. "I'm not even going to try to rationalize this..." Todd said to himself. He returned Psyduck back to his Poke Ball and then plastered on a large smile. "Wow, you're really strong! Can I get your number? I can call you and let you know about rooftop sales at the department store!"

Shit.

"They have sales at the department store?" she asked, eyes glittering with hope.

"Not anymore," Todd muttered angrily. "Sorry. But I can still call you for battles and stuff."

"No thanks," she said, the hope disappearing in her eyes like it once had in Todd's own eyes. "I only give my number to people who can get me cool stuff. Do you have any hook-ups on like, evolution stones?"

"Nope, sorry," he said, sighing. With that, he handed a few measly dollars off to the girl and reached into his bag for a Super Potion for Psyduck. To his dismay, his hand didn't come across a single one. He was completely out of them. He was going to have to go to the department store anyways... And purchase the item on the second floor. And pay full price.

Aw, shit.

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note (803/11): Don't lie to me, readers. You know that once upon a time, you asked everyone you knew who played Pokemon to trade you their Entei/Raikou/Suicune/Mewtwo/Gamesharked Mew etc. that they weren't using so you could blow through the game with it, only to find that it wouldn't do a damn thing in battle._

_But anyways, I just restarted Heart Gold and I realized that by taking away rooftop sales, they've ruined what used to be an awesome NPC who caught you mad shopping deals. I miss that Todd. This is for him. I always suspected that underneath that chipper, sale-loving exterior laid an angry soul._

_Chapter 06 of **TCaTG **should be here by the end of the week. I just needed to work on something a bit more fun to lighten myself up. Thanks for reading! (:_


End file.
